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Female MP suggests Indian women may have invited rape

Sexual violence has become a big social and political issue in India in recent years

REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

A female Indian politician and activist says rape victims may have invited attacks by their clothes and behaviour.

Asha Mirje, a Nationalist Congress Party leader in western Maharashtra state, has questioned why a 23-year-old physiotherapy student who was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi in 2012 was out late at night.

The student died of her injuries and thousands of people took to the streets in nationwide protests against the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in the world's largest democracy.

A number of shocking incidents have since been highlighted in Indian media, most recently the case of 20-year-old woman who said she was gang-raped in a rural area of West Bengal in eastern India on the orders of a village court last week.

Ms Mirje, who is a member of the state women's commission, said in reference to the Delhi assault: "Did Nirbhaya really have go to watch a movie at 11 in the night with her friend?"

"Nirbhaya", a Hindi word meaning "fearless", has been widely adopted by the Indian media as a name for the victim.

She also commented on the gang rape of a photojournalist who was on assignment at a disused mill in Mumbai last year, asking why the victim had gone to such an isolated place.

"Rapes take place also because of a woman's clothes, her behaviour and her presence at inappropriate places," she said.

Women must be "careful", she said, and think if they are inviting assault.

Swift reaction

Sexual violence has become a huge social and political issue since the Delhi rape and India toughened laws on sex crimes in March last year.

Public anger over the poor state of women's safety in Delhi was one reason that the ruling Congress Party was wiped out in local elections in the city last month.

Mirje's party belongs to the Congress-led national coalition government and her comments caused an immediate anger.

"Every time such a statement is made by a public figure it justifies rape," Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association, told Reuters.

"It's unconscionable that people in public posts make such remarks."

Even members of her own party distanced themsleves from her remarks.

Assaults have tarnished the reputation of a country that has enjoyed growing prosperity in the past decade.